My fingers feel as though they’ve got frostbite, an abandoned spray can lies on the table and most of my kitchen appears to be dusted in a light frosting of silver.

You would be forgiven for thinking my home had been attacked by vandals, but no. I’ve just been painting my nails. Or, more accurately, spray-painting my nails.

Yes, we’ve had stick-on nail polish, even iron-on nail polish (well, sort of - you had to use a hairdryer to get the adhesive to stick), and now it’s spray-on.

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Paint Can, from Nails Inc., is a spray-on nail varnish. You spray it onto your fingernails, wash the residue off your hands then can choose whether or not to apply a top coat. It allows for a faster manicure

The theory is straightforward. Apply a base coat with a brush for the polish to stick to, spray your nails (and, inevitably, the tips of your fingers and cuticles), then wait a few minutes for the colour to dry, before applying a top coat - also with a brush - to set the polish.

When that’s dry, use soap and water to wash away the excess from your fingers and cuticles, leaving you with a perfect manicure.

This latest innovation, Paint Can, is from Nails Inc. ‘We’re always looking for something new,’ says Thea Green, who founded the company in 1999. ‘We know our customer is time-poor, so anything that gives a longer-lasting manicure, less drying time, or faster application is always of interest.’

She says the idea of an aerosol application had been on their radar for a few years and, over the past 12 months, trial versions of the product have been tested by technicians in the company’s salons.

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‘If you apply the topcoat, this new product will last up to four days - and a day or two if you don’t,’ says Thea. ‘Generally, when it comes to nail polish, the faster something dries, the less wear you get out of it and the more matte it is. We think we’ve got the balance right.’

The price is certainly right - at £10 (nailsinc.com), it’s £4 cheaper than the company’s range of regular polishes. While they advise using it with their 2-in-1 Base and Top Coat (£8), you can use it with any.

But how many applications in a can? ‘I get around 15 to 20,’ says Thea. ‘And some of our consumer studies have shown you can get up to 30 applications if you’re more precise.’

The spray-on polish is currently available in a metallic-silver, called Shoreditch Lane, and neon-pink Hoxton Market, but there are plans for four or five more shades early next year.

Claire Coleman finds it difficult to apply the spray perfectly evenly and found she has to spray twice

‘The formulation means we can get colours we couldn’t get any other way. It’s impossible to get that level of silver reflection in a paint, and creating a neon that’s stable in the bottle for more than six months to a year is also very difficult, so we haven’t done it before.’

But while Thea makes it all sound so easy, my first attempt - using the Shoreditch Lane silver - was a learning curve. If you’re trying this at home, don’t repeat my mistakes.

First, clear a surface and cover it all with newspaper. You will thank me, unless frosting is part of your interior design plan. Applying the base coat is straightforward - then, after leaving it to dry, comes the fun bit. Shake the can and spray from a distance of 10 to 15 cm.

The spray feels cold, and I find I have to shake the can every few nails to keep the level of colour and coverage even. Still, I have to do touch-ups, as some nails seem to have denser colour, and I can see bits I’ve missed.

The colour takes only a few minutes to dry: when it’s ready, it goes from a sparkly molten-metal to flat matte. Then, wash off the extra, apply the top coat and allow that to dry.

I was a bit impatient - as I went to wash off the excess, I smudged one nail, so make sure you allow time for it to dry. As for ‘washing away’ the excess, I had to use a cloth to scrub round my nails and, even then, rogue bits of silver still dotted my hands.

Next time, I would try prepping with hand cream first, and use nail varnish remover to clean around the nails before applying the base coat.

As for the wear, I didn’t get anything like four days - one nail flaked within hours, and the rest didn’t last more than two days.

A thinner layer of spray and a long-wearing top coat, such as CND’s Vinylux Weekly Top Coat (£9.95, amazon.co.uk), making sure to cover the ends of the nails, might help.

But, on the whole, I’m impressed. It’s never going to replace the brush and bottle - but if, like me, when you’ve painted your nails, one hand looks passable while the other ends up like a pre-school art project, spray-on polish is a winner.

If you have only 15 minutes before a night out, alongside false lashes and lipstick, this little can could be an essential part of your pre-party rescue kit.